1. Technical Field
The disclosure generally relates to an apparatus for routing cabling and/or wiring, and in particular, to a modified T-style grommet for routing wire through a structure.
2. Related Art
In most vehicles, electrical wires and/or cables are used to connect various components of the vehicle to a control unit. For example, in aircraft, wiring and/or cabling 12 may be routed via a wire bundle or harness through apertures 14 formed in the aircraft structure 16 to connect the aircraft components to their respective control units, as shown in FIG. 1. FIGS. 2a through 2c depict examples of how a wire is presently routed through the structure of an aircraft.
As shown, the wire 12 is secured to an aircraft structure 16 by hardware comprising, among other things, various brackets, rivets, stand-offs, p-clips, spacers, screws, washers, nuts, and clamps. For aircraft, in particular, caterpillar-type grommets are generally required to be installed on any aperture that has a wire bundle routed through it, even if the bundle only contains a single wire, to protect the wires from damage caused by chaffing or rubbing against the edge of the aperture. Thus, the brackets and related hardware currently used to secure wire to an aircraft structure has many drawbacks. For example, the hardware is bulky and heavy and the installation and re-installation of the hardware are time consuming, tedious and costly because the hardware includes many parts.
Accordingly, a need therefore exists for a simpler and more cost-and-weight effective method for securing wires and cabling to a structure.